A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 eBook

Soon after the interchanging of our presents with
Tootahah, they attended us to several large houses,
in which we walked about with great freedom:
they shewed us all the civility of which, in our situation,
we could accept; and, on their part, seemed to have
no scruple that would have prevented its being carried
farther. The houses, which as I have observed
before, are all open, except a roof, afforded no place
of retirement; but the ladies, by frequently pointing
to the mats upon the ground, and sometimes seating
themselves and drawing us down upon them, left us
no room to doubt of their being much less jealous of
observation than we were.

We now took leave of our friendly chief, and directed
our course along the shore; when we had walked about
a mile, we met, at the head of a great number of people,
another chief, whose name was Toubourai Tamaide,
with whom we were also to ratify a treaty of peace,
with the ceremony of which we were now become better
acquainted. Having received the branch which
he presented to us, and given another in return, we
laid our hands upon our left breasts, and pronounced
the word Taio, which we supposed to signify
friend; the chief then gave us to understand, that
if we chose to eat, he had victuals ready for us.
We accepted his offer, and dined very heartily upon
fish, breadfruit, cocoa-nuts and plantains, dressed
after their manner; they eat some of their fish raw,
and raw fish was offered to us, but we declined that
part of the entertainment.

During this visit a wife of our noble host, whose
name was Tomio, did Mr Banks the honour to
place herself upon the same matt, close by him.
Tomio was not in the first bloom of her youth, nor
did she appear to have been ever remarkable for her
beauty: he did not therefore, I believe, pay
her the most flattering attention: it happened
too, as a farther mortification to this lady, that
seeing a very pretty girl among the crowd, he, not
adverting to the dignity of his companion, beckoned
her to come to him: the girl, after some entreaty,
complied, and sat down on the other side of him; he
loaded her with beads, and every showy trifle that
would please her: his princess, though she was
somewhat mortified at the preference that was given
to her rival, did not discontinue her civilities,
but still assiduously supplied him with the milk of
the cocoa-nut, and such other dainties as were in her
reach. This scene might possibly have become
more curious and interesting, if it had not been suddenly
interrupted by an interlude of a more serious kind.
Just at this time, Dr Solander and Mr Monkhouse complained
that their pockets had been picked. Dr Solander
had lost an opera glass in a shagreen case, and Mr
Monkhouse his snuff box. This incident unfortunately
put an end to the good-humour of the company.
Complaint of the injury was made to the chief; and,
to give it weight, Mr Banks started up, and hastily
struck the butt end of his firelock upon the ground:
this action, and the noise that accompanied it, struck
the whole assembly with a panic, and every one of
the natives ran out of the house with the utmost precipitation,
except the chief, three women, and two or three others,
who appeared by their dress to be of a superior rank.